Listed: Carla Bozulich + Thomas Function

Carla Bozulich

There’s no common stylistic denominator in Carla Bozulich’s music, but it all boasts a raw, unflinching intensity that makes her live performances impossible to shake. The Los Angeles-based musician made an immediate impression in the early 1990s with the industrial burlesque outfit Ethyl Meatplow before stepping sideways into bluesy roots with the Geraldine Fibbers. In 2003, Bozulich and Nels Cline delivered a haunting reworking of Willie Nelson’s Red Headed Stranger album, featuring duets with the silver-tongued outlaw himself. Most recently, Bozulich’s reinvented herself as a fire-breathing blues preacher with her Evangelista project––an ongoing collaboration with musicians from Montreal’s Constellation scene. Records like Evangelista and Hello Voyager put listeners through the ringer, whipping up dense, howling storms girded by hellfire-and-brimstone unease. Bozulich puts on her puritan collar to make an unholy ruckus in cities throughout the U.S. in late June and August. Check her site for details.

1. Annie Gosfield - Lost Signals and Drifting SatellitesI can't get out of this once I get in. Sometimes I really think she may be the best right now. She sees with her ears and she sees BIG. There are whole sentient worlds inside these dioramas. She is a Duchamp, goddamn it, and it fucking freaks me out. Is it nice to travel fast forward through days or weeks hearing the insides of minds and hands turn wordlessly into a mountain of swords and glass rockets and little severed paws and pictures of lilies covered in chocolate and dipped in gasoline and huffed back to life? I made all this up because you cannot say what her sounds are but I was serious when I said she may be the best.

2. Ohio Players - FireWell, fuck. This is a crappy album that contains one of the greatest songs of all time. That song is "Fire." Please find this album on vinyl even if you do not like music because the cover alone.... well there's a lady with an afro in gleamy vaseline kinda photography inside the gatefold, as I recall. And she's wearing a little fire hat and a firehose and nothing else! Fun when I was 9 years old and I bet I'd still get a kick out of it now. I DO still love to dance to that song.

3. Germs - What We Do is SecretThis music....I can't imagine myself or what I would be like if I hadn't listened to this album at least a hundred times when I was a kid. Now I don't really care but I thought it'd be nice to dredge it up.

4. Frankie Sparo - Welcome Crummy MysticsAn album by special Montreal man. Nadia and Jessica are on it, shining. Very heavy connection to dense sandy flood is now suspended always in hope and the opening and closing of leaves just at the point when you think it will surely become springtime. "Back On Speed" is one of my favorite songs of all time.

5. Damion Romero - Damion RomeroThere's not much you can say about this album. It's not sound you talk about. It's more like it helps your spine to stop sending words to your brain. Constant patient morphing of drone to the loudest lowest is best for not thinking. Wear rubber on your feet when listening to this.

6. The New Silver Mount Zion - 13 Blues for 13 MoonsI just want some action to hear someone like Efrim singing "I just want some action" (is that what he's singing!?). Anyway, to hear that the world must be coming to an end and it's important that, when that happens, we are not taken by surprise––just in case we want to try to have some say in the matter. I'm just jiving around but this album is the best of glam and doom and choir and it's Davey and Goliath in black liquorice slapped onto a black lathe and flattened into liquorice pizza. Currently second favorite tour album in van headphones.

7. Jimi Hendrix - Axis: Bold as LoveI am a product of an imaginary life that had much to do with the visions and sounds and what I saw when I would listen to this album as a child. Now I do not listen to music.

8. Nels Cline Trio - SadThis is an album that has a song--"Crest in Black" for Nancy Sandercock from the Polar Goldie Cats. It's one of the best songs ever made. There is the bookend which is "Arrows" written for me. The first that I know of and is as good a song as I am a person (very). Nels and I, around 1993 (?) went to see the Goldie Cats for the first time. He and I had never met and would in fact not meet for a long time after. None of us knew each other. But Nels and I (separately) fell in love with the PGC's and each of us left that gig with a new special music to explore. Partly it may have been the amazing hat Nancy had on that night which I can still picture perfectly. Later when we all met we had some good laughs about it. And shortly after that, Nels made "Sad."

9. Hawnay Troof - Who Likes Ta?Dance to this immediately.

10. The Make Up - Destination: Love - Live! At Cold RiceOh, man. Just listen.

11. Ivo Paposov and his Bulgarian Wedding Band - Orpheus Ascending"Byala Stala" is one of my all time favorite songs. It has someone singing like God if God lost its best and only friend--wedding indeed. Anyway, that singer has remained without gender for me for a long time and I don't want to know so I don't look at the album. Unfortunately much of the record suffers from "too many notes syndrome."

Thomas Function

With the release of their debut LP, Celebration, on Alive/Natural Sounds, Thomas Function have been steadily building a name for themselves in garage and punk circles. The Huntsville, Alabama-based band, however, doesn’t stand very firmly under either of those genre umbrellas. Instead, their supremely hummable, lodged-in-the-brain melodies join with crisp jangly guitars and bouncy rhythms to create some of the finest pop-rock coming out today. Being from the Deep South, the occasional roots style does crop up here and there, but Thomas Function certainly aren’t making your daddy’s Southern rock. Throw a certain beer-bash attitude into the mix, and what you get is a band that is so fun, yet so smart in their songwriting you almost don’t know what do with them. No worries, they know how to keep themselves occupied––check out their Listed below.

Being from Alabama, a state that thrives on summer time, we decided to let everyone know what it takes to make your day in 110 degrees of humid heat.

1. PorcharitasAn immigrant from San Pedro by way of Ben Rhyne of Pine Hill Haints fame, this mad concoction is a sure way to cool off and black out in the mid-afternoon. All one needs to make it is 1 liter of tequila, 8 cans of beer, 2 cans of lime juice concentrate, a bag of ice, and a bucket. Throw all of this into said bucket and you've got the perfect start.

2. Thirsty ThursdaysOur local minor league baseball team, the Huntsville Stars, suffer from poor attendance. I'm not sure why, but I'm thankful. To boost ticket sales they wisely decided to start offering dollar beers through the 7th inning at all Thursday home games. All you need to have a great time is $20, 5 of it going to your ticket. It's the only place in the world where the cheap seats are the best.

3. Point MallardHome of the first wave pool in America, and now home of the oldest, this place is a relic and a testament to all that is Alabama. The slides suck, children religiously pee in the wave pool, and the high dives just might kill you (as a matter of fact, they just closed the Olympic high dive due to some type of injury), but Tuesdays and Thursdays it's only $5 to get in after 5, and that's a good price for a good laugh.

4. Quit your jobI tend to be jobless this time of the year which can be a little stressful when it comes to paying bills, but it's just too hard to work when you know there's tons of better stuff to do.

5. RecordsSoundtracks to the heat are very important. Here's a typical playlist:

As you can see there doesn't have to be a theme or any sort of organization to it. It just needs to carry you through the day.

6. Gulf ShoresKnown to some as the Redneck Riviera, Gulf Shores is our own personal slice of heaven. The Gulf of Mexico's asshole is a fine place to get herpes, swim in brown water, and repeatedly run into jellyfish. It seems to be where the rest of the Gulf decides to shit when it gets too full. I suggest going to the Floribama club if you've never been.

7. Records I'm Looking Forward to This SummerThe Wax Museums LP - It seems everyone I know has a CD-R of this, but me. But I can wait. Human Eye LP: I haven't heard a good Chrome album in years. The Dutchess and the Duke: Modern folk music that doesn't give me a headache, honest songs lacking pretentious overtones. I'm sure it'll be amazing.

8. A garden hoseSince most of my friends and acquaintances lack the funding to purchase a pool, above or in-ground, the simplest way to beat the heat in your own backyard is with the help of your run-of-the-mill garden hose. I just recently purchased one of these for the first time in my life (I just always seemed to have one) and a good fifty footer will run you about six bucks at K-mart, so it basically sells itself. Oh, and don't forget one of those nozzles that has different settings, y'know like a shower head.

9. Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs (30 pack)I'm pretty sure these cost around $11 at Costco. Now, I don't have a Costco card, but I usually find someone who does just to purchase these fine, fine dogs. This is what grilling-out is all about. Does that store even sell anything else?

10. Porcharitas before Thirsty ThursdayOne plus two equals fuggin' awesome. This is a sure-fire way to not remember a whole day and just go straight to Friday. Oh, and Space Camp!